Keeping the battery alive without a mains socket
Discussion
My Chimaera has recently gained a nice home in the form of my new garage. Unfortunately this one doesn't have a power supply.
I'm far from a fair weather driver (honest) but it's inevitably going to spend a certain amount of time stuck in the garage over the winter months. Does anybody have any suggestions for keeping the battery alive?
At a push I might be able to connect up a couple of extension leads to power a trickle charger from the house, but that's 50 feet away with the neighbours' driveway and access in between.
On a related note. Is there any way to jump start the car without getting the leads down into the footwell?
I'm far from a fair weather driver (honest) but it's inevitably going to spend a certain amount of time stuck in the garage over the winter months. Does anybody have any suggestions for keeping the battery alive?
At a push I might be able to connect up a couple of extension leads to power a trickle charger from the house, but that's 50 feet away with the neighbours' driveway and access in between.
On a related note. Is there any way to jump start the car without getting the leads down into the footwell?
Defcon5 said:
Are those solar ones decent?
Shame the leads are so short, 9ft won't reach from the car to the roof of the garage at all
Extend them?Shame the leads are so short, 9ft won't reach from the car to the roof of the garage at all
I'd say either:
1. Solar trickle charger on the roof to keep it topped up.
2. Disconnect the battery so it doesn't run down.
3. Have a spare battery and use it to jump start the car.
Not totally sure how the wiring works on the car we're referring to, as I think some TVR's have the battery in a hard to reach place so disconnecting may not be easy. So long as there are points to jump onto within easy reach I'd do that.
If you can't easily get to your battery (can't open door enough) then I suggest you fit an Anderson plug under the bonnet, then jump starting would be easier.
There are various power packs on the market from £20 and I have started a 4ltr Chimeara with one before, they're also handy for other things too, as mines got a built in compressor and 12v socket and a torch.
A solar panel on your garage roof could keep your car topped up, they've come a long way in the past few years.
There are various power packs on the market from £20 and I have started a 4ltr Chimeara with one before, they're also handy for other things too, as mines got a built in compressor and 12v socket and a torch.
A solar panel on your garage roof could keep your car topped up, they've come a long way in the past few years.
As you have no easy power source why not approach the problem from the other direction :-
To stop the battery discharging to a state where the car cannot be started why not fit a "battery brain", this will disconnect the load from the battery when the charge level drops to a certain point and ensures that there is enough charge left to start the car.
To make jump starting easier you could fit an anderson connector in the engine bay, which is wired to the chassis/alternator and provides a much easier connection point for jump leads.
Regards
UKDJ
To stop the battery discharging to a state where the car cannot be started why not fit a "battery brain", this will disconnect the load from the battery when the charge level drops to a certain point and ensures that there is enough charge left to start the car.
To make jump starting easier you could fit an anderson connector in the engine bay, which is wired to the chassis/alternator and provides a much easier connection point for jump leads.
Regards
UKDJ
You could fit a Richbrook Discarnect or similar and just disconnect the battery when parked for extended periods of time - Just make sure you leave a way of getting back into the car after you close the door!
http://caraudiosecurity.com/richbrook-dis-car-nect...
May depend on size of garage and angle of driveway as to how easy it is to do this, mine is a single so I have to disconnect then push car back into garage as no room to open door in garage, then push out when i need it and reconnect. OK when flat, not so good up a slope!
http://caraudiosecurity.com/richbrook-dis-car-nect...
May depend on size of garage and angle of driveway as to how easy it is to do this, mine is a single so I have to disconnect then push car back into garage as no room to open door in garage, then push out when i need it and reconnect. OK when flat, not so good up a slope!
I have the larger 4.8w solar panel keeping my Cerb charged
http://www.maplin.co.uk/solar-powered-12v-4.8w-bat...
Daz
http://www.maplin.co.uk/solar-powered-12v-4.8w-bat...
Daz
Clearly the best solution to this common problem is to track down the parasitic drain & eliminate it, however this can be costly & time consuming.
At the end of the day it will most likely result in you paying to have a more up-to-date alarm system fitted, to do this properly is likely to cost upwards of £600.00.
But there is a cheaper solution, consider this...
A healthy disconnected battery will hold sufficient charge to start your TVR after 6 months or more of inactivity.
But how to conveniently disconnect the battery after you've locked the car?
That's easy, the "Battery Brain" is your answer (Gold model with remotes).
Simple to fit the Battery Brain device can be activated from outside the car after you have used the TVR remote to deadlock the doors.
Just lock the car as normal, allow 30 seconds for the alarm to stabilise (Alarm LED goes from a fast flash to a slow blink) then press the Battery Brain remote fob once.
You'll hear a dull clunk from the Battery Brain & the alarm LED will extinguish indicating your battery is now disconnected, the car remains locked yet you've fully disconnected your battery so no drain.
Ok so the alarm is not going to function if someone breaks in, but equally a theif can't start and drive off in the car with its battery disconnected.
If by some miracle the thief finds the Battery Brain & manually reconnects it (highly unlikely), all he's going to do is activate the alarm & immobiliser so he'll then need to get past that just as if he was attempting to steal any other Chimaera.
The only downside I can see is the alarm wont go off if a window is smashed or a door levered open, but lets be honest here who gives the blindest bit of notice to a wailing car alarm these days?
So I actually see the Battery Brain as a second line of defense, making the car harder to steal than if it wasn't fitted.
The benefit of the Battery Brain is you can return to your TVR literally months later, press the Battery Brain remote fob once to reconnect the battery, wait for the three flashes from the indicators to stop, press the TVR fob to unlock the car and drive away like you drove it yesterday.
No mains power & trickle chargers involved, no marginally performing solar chargers required; just one press of the Battery Brain remote and all your battery drain woes have ended.
Combine it with a decent new battery at the time of fitting a Battery Brain and your "No Start" frustrations will seem like a distant bad dream.
http://www.batterybrain.co.uk/productspage.php
If you suffer from the TVR battery drain issue & have no access to a mains power supply, a Battery Brain Gold will be the best £60.00 you'll ever spend on your TVR.
And it'll also save you a fortune in regular battery replacements.
I've had mine on my Chimaera for over two years, it's a proven, reliable, yet simple solution & one I can highly recommend.
Another benefit of the Battery Brain is fire safety.
It's not unheard of for TVR's to mysteriously set themselves on fire while sat seemingly inactive, on a Griff or Chim it's usually the cigarette lighter socket shorting itself out, on a Tuscan it's most likely a short at the Aderson charger point.
I know of a least one TVR specialist that has a policy of manually disconnecting the battery on every car left in his workshop overnight for this very reason.
With the battery disconnected the car's entire wiring system is disconnected too, so the risk of fire caused by a short is virtually eliminated.
Just another handy feature of the Battery Brain, in fact when considering fire risk I'd feel far happier using the Battery Brain than a trickle charger.
Especially a trickle charger plugged into that very poor quality cigarette lighter socket.
The battery Brain is easy to fit, it just clamps to the positive battery terminal, and there's plenty of space for it in a Chimaera footwell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NBdtfL5ag0
I recommended ditching the monkey metal clamp that comes in the Battery Brain kit though, its made from very poor material that fractures easily.
Just buy a decent tinned brass positive battery terminal, the type with an M8 stud like this:
They're not expensive, I got mine from here:
http://kojaycat.co.uk/BT461-M8-post-type-positive-...
Once you've fitted your Battery Brain you can disconnect & reconnect your battery at will from 10 feet away after the car is deadlocked, in fact the transmitter range of the Battery Brain remote is far superior to the TVR key fob (not hard).
It totally solves the problem of the TVR parasitic battery drain, well actually it masks it but you get what I mean.
On reconnecting your battery you'll find you'll need to reset your clock and radio pre-sets, hardly a big inconvenience and a small price to pay for knowing the car will definitely start even if you haven't used it for months.
When reconnecting my battery using the Battery Brain I have never had an alarm activation once, you just get three flashes from the indicators, after this you can unlock the car as normal & drive away.
Job done for about £65.00 all in, if you've ever had the disappointment of finding your TVR has a flat battery just when you want to take it out for a blast, try a Battery Brain for a few months then tell me you don't love it.
I wouldn't be without mine & far safer than a trickle charger (especially one that been connected to that terrible ciggy socket in the door).
NB: If you do use a trickle charger for heavens sake take 10 minutes to hook it up directly to your battery terminals!
Just get a quick connect fused fly lead to make a proper job of it, & this way it'll be as easy & convenient to connect as using that very poor quality ciggy socket in the door.
Your battery will get a better and more reliable charge and you could end up saving your car (& house if you've got an attached garage) from burning down.
I'm not scaremongering, but in my opinion for the sake of 10 minutes to do the job properly you'd be mad not to hook up your trickle charger directly to the battery.
The only reason you'd use that awful ciggy socket is because your too lazy to do it properly or you're afraid of 12v batteries.
If you don't feel confident to fit a trickle charger fly lead directly to your battery, get a mechanic to do it for you.
Regret is a dreadful thing.
At the end of the day it will most likely result in you paying to have a more up-to-date alarm system fitted, to do this properly is likely to cost upwards of £600.00.
But there is a cheaper solution, consider this...
A healthy disconnected battery will hold sufficient charge to start your TVR after 6 months or more of inactivity.
But how to conveniently disconnect the battery after you've locked the car?
That's easy, the "Battery Brain" is your answer (Gold model with remotes).
Simple to fit the Battery Brain device can be activated from outside the car after you have used the TVR remote to deadlock the doors.
Just lock the car as normal, allow 30 seconds for the alarm to stabilise (Alarm LED goes from a fast flash to a slow blink) then press the Battery Brain remote fob once.
You'll hear a dull clunk from the Battery Brain & the alarm LED will extinguish indicating your battery is now disconnected, the car remains locked yet you've fully disconnected your battery so no drain.
Ok so the alarm is not going to function if someone breaks in, but equally a theif can't start and drive off in the car with its battery disconnected.
If by some miracle the thief finds the Battery Brain & manually reconnects it (highly unlikely), all he's going to do is activate the alarm & immobiliser so he'll then need to get past that just as if he was attempting to steal any other Chimaera.
The only downside I can see is the alarm wont go off if a window is smashed or a door levered open, but lets be honest here who gives the blindest bit of notice to a wailing car alarm these days?
So I actually see the Battery Brain as a second line of defense, making the car harder to steal than if it wasn't fitted.
The benefit of the Battery Brain is you can return to your TVR literally months later, press the Battery Brain remote fob once to reconnect the battery, wait for the three flashes from the indicators to stop, press the TVR fob to unlock the car and drive away like you drove it yesterday.
No mains power & trickle chargers involved, no marginally performing solar chargers required; just one press of the Battery Brain remote and all your battery drain woes have ended.
Combine it with a decent new battery at the time of fitting a Battery Brain and your "No Start" frustrations will seem like a distant bad dream.
http://www.batterybrain.co.uk/productspage.php
If you suffer from the TVR battery drain issue & have no access to a mains power supply, a Battery Brain Gold will be the best £60.00 you'll ever spend on your TVR.
And it'll also save you a fortune in regular battery replacements.
I've had mine on my Chimaera for over two years, it's a proven, reliable, yet simple solution & one I can highly recommend.
Another benefit of the Battery Brain is fire safety.
It's not unheard of for TVR's to mysteriously set themselves on fire while sat seemingly inactive, on a Griff or Chim it's usually the cigarette lighter socket shorting itself out, on a Tuscan it's most likely a short at the Aderson charger point.
I know of a least one TVR specialist that has a policy of manually disconnecting the battery on every car left in his workshop overnight for this very reason.
With the battery disconnected the car's entire wiring system is disconnected too, so the risk of fire caused by a short is virtually eliminated.
Just another handy feature of the Battery Brain, in fact when considering fire risk I'd feel far happier using the Battery Brain than a trickle charger.
Especially a trickle charger plugged into that very poor quality cigarette lighter socket.
The battery Brain is easy to fit, it just clamps to the positive battery terminal, and there's plenty of space for it in a Chimaera footwell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NBdtfL5ag0
I recommended ditching the monkey metal clamp that comes in the Battery Brain kit though, its made from very poor material that fractures easily.
Just buy a decent tinned brass positive battery terminal, the type with an M8 stud like this:
They're not expensive, I got mine from here:
http://kojaycat.co.uk/BT461-M8-post-type-positive-...
Once you've fitted your Battery Brain you can disconnect & reconnect your battery at will from 10 feet away after the car is deadlocked, in fact the transmitter range of the Battery Brain remote is far superior to the TVR key fob (not hard).
It totally solves the problem of the TVR parasitic battery drain, well actually it masks it but you get what I mean.
On reconnecting your battery you'll find you'll need to reset your clock and radio pre-sets, hardly a big inconvenience and a small price to pay for knowing the car will definitely start even if you haven't used it for months.
When reconnecting my battery using the Battery Brain I have never had an alarm activation once, you just get three flashes from the indicators, after this you can unlock the car as normal & drive away.
Job done for about £65.00 all in, if you've ever had the disappointment of finding your TVR has a flat battery just when you want to take it out for a blast, try a Battery Brain for a few months then tell me you don't love it.
I wouldn't be without mine & far safer than a trickle charger (especially one that been connected to that terrible ciggy socket in the door).
NB: If you do use a trickle charger for heavens sake take 10 minutes to hook it up directly to your battery terminals!
Just get a quick connect fused fly lead to make a proper job of it, & this way it'll be as easy & convenient to connect as using that very poor quality ciggy socket in the door.
Your battery will get a better and more reliable charge and you could end up saving your car (& house if you've got an attached garage) from burning down.
I'm not scaremongering, but in my opinion for the sake of 10 minutes to do the job properly you'd be mad not to hook up your trickle charger directly to the battery.
The only reason you'd use that awful ciggy socket is because your too lazy to do it properly or you're afraid of 12v batteries.
If you don't feel confident to fit a trickle charger fly lead directly to your battery, get a mechanic to do it for you.
Regret is a dreadful thing.
Edited by ChimpOnGas on Thursday 7th November 08:29
I also have a Maplins solar charger, although mine comes in a briefcase form which is very handy if I travel anywhere.
Works a treat when I am not near an outlet, and can keep a Cerb happy for weeks without a problem, including winter. You do have to ensure that the panel itself is kept clean though...
Works a treat when I am not near an outlet, and can keep a Cerb happy for weeks without a problem, including winter. You do have to ensure that the panel itself is kept clean though...
Hadn't thought of a solar charger. That might be worth looking into.
Plenty of food for thought above.
Dave - you'll be pleased to hear I have a fused fly lead going straight to the battery. I used to have an Accumate that plugged straight in (well, I still do, I just lack the power source now...)
I presume the only point to jump start a standard Chim is off the battery terminals? I did think about getting one of those remote jump start kits.
How you doing Chris, glad to see the cars all fixed now.
SimonCome to think of it, my driveway is very slightly downhill...
I'm good thanks. The car has actually spent quite a lot of its time down in your neck of the woods (JHD did the engine installation and it lived at my dad's house until I had space up here). How's things?
Plenty of food for thought above.
Dave - you'll be pleased to hear I have a fused fly lead going straight to the battery. I used to have an Accumate that plugged straight in (well, I still do, I just lack the power source now...)
I presume the only point to jump start a standard Chim is off the battery terminals? I did think about getting one of those remote jump start kits.
sgrimshaw said:
Chris71 said:
On a related note. Is there any way to jump start the car without getting the leads down into the footwell?
Yes, some willing volunteers to push!How you doing Chris, glad to see the cars all fixed now.
Simon
I'm good thanks. The car has actually spent quite a lot of its time down in your neck of the woods (JHD did the engine installation and it lived at my dad's house until I had space up here). How's things?
Vee8ight said:
I have the larger 4.8w solar panel keeping my Cerb charged
http://www.maplin.co.uk/solar-powered-12v-4.8w-bat...
Daz
I am gonna get myself one if these thanks! http://www.maplin.co.uk/solar-powered-12v-4.8w-bat...
Daz
Do you have to get a seperate Anderson connector or can you actually plug into cig lighter and that will keep battery topped up?
steveT350C said:
I am gonna get myself one if these thanks!
Do you have to get a seperate Anderson connector or can you actually plug into cig lighter and that will keep battery topped up?
Mine was originally plugged diect to the cig lighter but with the panel in the back window. I've since fitted it to the garage roof, extended the cable, but still plug in with the cig lighter.Do you have to get a seperate Anderson connector or can you actually plug into cig lighter and that will keep battery topped up?
While there's no doubt solar panels can work if you get one that produces enough watts, in my opinion they are far from convenient.
At the end of the day you are trying to replace what's being lost, and I've yet to discover a solar panel that works at night.
If you mount one inside the car on the dash, you're going to lose a lot of efficiency through the screen, then when it rains and water sits on the screen efficiency will plummet further, probably to next to nothing.
And morning frost or snow will be just like night time, no output at all.
Fitting the solar charger outside the car will be a bit better but not much, and then you've got theft and vandalism to contend with.
Fitted inside or outside the car, in the winter a solar charger will only be doing something meaningful for a maximum of 4-5 hours in 24.
Remember, for the remaining 19 hours the drain returns to drag the battery down again, hardly ideal.
And remember even when running at full chat in ideal conditions these small solar panels barely ever chuck out more than 3 watts.
Then there's the hassle of fitting it every time you leave the car, and removing it every time you use the car.
Compare all this with the convenience of just pressing a button on your Battery Brain fob.
No contest!
And a disconnected battery cant drain, just lock the car, hit the Battery Brain button & walk away knowing you can just jump in the car & drive away after six months of inactivity.
And unlike a solar charger it works in complete darkness, so if your car is in underground storage, under a cover or inside your lockup the Battery Brain will deliver exactly the same result.
I tried the whole solar panel thing two years ago, and then switched to a Battery Brain.
I'd never go back to the solar panel, in my experience they are inconvenient & mostly ineffectual.
At the end of the day you are trying to replace what's being lost, and I've yet to discover a solar panel that works at night.
If you mount one inside the car on the dash, you're going to lose a lot of efficiency through the screen, then when it rains and water sits on the screen efficiency will plummet further, probably to next to nothing.
And morning frost or snow will be just like night time, no output at all.
Fitting the solar charger outside the car will be a bit better but not much, and then you've got theft and vandalism to contend with.
Fitted inside or outside the car, in the winter a solar charger will only be doing something meaningful for a maximum of 4-5 hours in 24.
Remember, for the remaining 19 hours the drain returns to drag the battery down again, hardly ideal.
And remember even when running at full chat in ideal conditions these small solar panels barely ever chuck out more than 3 watts.
Then there's the hassle of fitting it every time you leave the car, and removing it every time you use the car.
Compare all this with the convenience of just pressing a button on your Battery Brain fob.
No contest!
And a disconnected battery cant drain, just lock the car, hit the Battery Brain button & walk away knowing you can just jump in the car & drive away after six months of inactivity.
And unlike a solar charger it works in complete darkness, so if your car is in underground storage, under a cover or inside your lockup the Battery Brain will deliver exactly the same result.
I tried the whole solar panel thing two years ago, and then switched to a Battery Brain.
I'd never go back to the solar panel, in my experience they are inconvenient & mostly ineffectual.
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